GM’s Super Cruise clocks a billion miles in under a decade
▼ Summary
– GM’s Super Cruise, launched in 2017, uses geofencing and lidar-scanned HD maps to restrict hands-free driving to specific highways, plus a driver-facing camera to monitor attention.
– Super Cruise has surpassed 1 billion driven miles across nearly 750,000 vehicles in the US and Canada.
– GM reports a near 40% renewal rate for Super Cruise after the initial three-year free period, indicating strong customer retention.
– The system’s mapped road network has expanded from over 160,000 miles in 2018 to nearly 700,000 miles currently.
– Super Cruise is used an average of 17 miles and 24 minutes per trip, with over half of drivers using it weekly or daily.
When General Motors introduced Super Cruise in the 2017 Cadillac CT6, it took a deliberately cautious approach to hands-free driving. Unlike Tesla’s more open-ended system, GM geofenced the technology to only operate on restricted-access highways that had been pre-scanned with lidar and high-definition maps. To further enforce safety, an infrared camera tracks the driver’s gaze, requiring eyes on the road at all times for the system to remain engaged.
What began as a feature exclusive to Cadillac’s flagship sedan has since expanded across GM’s lineup. Now, Super Cruise has surpassed one billion miles driven (1.6 billion km) across nearly 750,000 vehicles in the U. S. and Canada. “And we’re continuing to grow that, both with the new sales and also we have a very high renewal rate,” said Rashed Haq, GM’s vice president of autonomous vehicles.
That renewal rate sits close to 40 percent among Super Cruise owners. The system is free for the first three years before requiring an active OnStar subscription. Haq describes this loyalty as the “toothbrush test.” “The customers are using it continuously. Once they use it, they never go back. They continue to use it, and then they use it multiple times a day, just like a toothbrush. So it’s really past that kind of stickiness test,” he explained.
The mapped road network has also grown substantially. When I first tested Super Cruise in a CT6 back in 2018, it covered over 160,000 miles (258,000 km). Today, that figure has swelled to nearly 700,000 miles (1.1 million km) of compatible highways. According to GM’s data, the average Super Cruise trip spans 17 miles (27 km) and lasts 24 minutes, with more than half of enabled drivers using the system weekly or daily.
(Source: Ars Technica)
